HP 10c

[jebem]

(05-22-2018 02:40 PM)grsbanks Wrote:  How long is a piece of string?

It all depends on two factors:

1) How well you take care of your calculator

2) Pot luck

I agree.

From my experience in the field, any kind of electronic component can eventually fail given enough time, either at rest (not in use) or under load.

There are many factors to contribute to component failure.

Some components can fail after running for a few minutes or hours if the manufacturing process have left higher than acceptable contaminants inside the structure, specially when we talk about integrated circuits.
So when a machine is brand new, it is crucial to use it as long as possible to make sure that all the components are free from obvious manufacturing defects.
If it work flawlessly for months, then probably it will continue to work for many years before eventually failing.

Also, the probability of failure increases with operating temperature (overheating).
The higher the current we force in a semiconductor, the higher the chance of failure.
One such example is overclocking a system that not only can cause soft errors (a power cycle would reset the system to normal) but also cause hard errors (permanent failure due to a faulty component).

Other components will fail for sure in a relatively short period of time (5 to 20 years), like electrolytic capacitors and batteries, as the electrolytes can dry over time or even leak.